[classicchrisk]

Guilty as charged for driving the Dakar Sprint vehicles. The Landy kept rolling off the track on the tight corners. Maybe it was too different to the others in the class and I didn't adapt my driving style quickly enough to cope.

I did start to wonder if Graham had paid you to make sure the Landy didn't beat his car in the overall event. Certainly, it had a very competitive lap time, I guess your marshal was just too far away to get it back on the track quickly. 
In testing, before the event, the Landy was quicker on my Scalextric track, the the Ninco Pajero, to which it shared a chassis.
Just pleased that my special build, won its class, on my first ever raid event.

[Graham]

I thought the fact that the Panda beat the Landrover was very amusing, kinda demonstrating that any permutation was possible with these proxies 

Retrospectively I should have worded the rules differently, so that Raid chassis based vehicles could not compete in the Dakar Sprint, but it is a case of being wise after the event. Similarly with the AA Van, the shorter wheelbase gave it a tremendous advantage over the longer wheelbase trucks, so perhaps this was also in the wrong category in reality and perhaps should have been listed in with the lightweights.

[Makem]

Well done and many thanks Graham.
Good to see you at the weekend, glad you got home OK.
Regards
Gerry

[Mike174]

Finally, after the 3rd time a ninco class win! And the porsche 'tractor' did better than expected too! Thanks Graham for organising yet another enjoyable and diverse proxy. Put my name down for any future raid events, whoever may run them! 

[Gpa113]

An excellent Proxy event, thank you Graham for organising,  and thanks to all the hosts, and everyone who entered. 
Great fun running all the diverse and different entries, loved the Trucks!

Very pleased to finish 3rd in the Ninco class, and 6th overall.   I hadn't touched my Touareg since last years event, perhaps that actually helped!!  Well done Mike! Finally landing the Ninco class after being so close in the previous two events. Good job !

Good luck to all who have entered the Touring Car Proxy, will be keeping an eye on the proceedings....

[classicchrisk]

I thought the fact that the Panda beat the Landrover was very amusing, kinda demonstrating that any permutation was possible with these proxies 

Retrospectively I should have worded the rules differently, so that Raid chassis based vehicles could not compete in the Dakar Sprint, but it is a case of being wise after the event. Similarly with the AA Van, the shorter wheelbase gave it a tremendous advantage over the longer wheelbase trucks, so perhaps this was also in the wrong category in reality and perhaps should have been listed in with the lightweights.

 I built the Land-Rover expecting it to be a light vehicle, but told the Ninco chassis wouldn't cope with those obstacles as they were designed for substantially longer drop arms. 
I was concerned that it may be too top heavy to compete with WRC cars, in the Dakar Sprint, but, very surprised how well it was performing on the relatively flat tracks. 
Allowing the Ninco raid chassis was not an oversight, but suggested as an option for the Dakar Sprint. 

I'd have been happy running it alongside the Ninco's, but rules didn't allow it as it was a one off special, based on the Ninco chassis.

Anyway, no more plans for any raid proxy's, so it is immaterial, now.

In this type of event, there will always be some vehicles which perform better than others on certain tracks. It usually balances out, overall. I didn't know what to expect from the stages, I was just lucky that something I built to be a bit different and bit of fun, happened to perform well on this blind test. 

It was great fun, building a car for a type of class, I have never tried, but wouldn't mind entering some raid/extreme events in the future. Just not sure if the Landrover would actually qualify for any classes!?

[Graham]

The cars are back here at HQ, so they will be made ready for sending back next week 

So one final THANK YOU   to all the participants and hosts who made this happen over the last few years, it was all great fun !

[Makem]

Did I read somewhere that the Abergavenny Club might hold a proxy for these types of cars next year?

If that is correct then I may hang onto them and enter that, if not, I may as well sell them as I have no real interest in raid / rally, only entered to support Graham.

Gerry

[Graham]

Did I read somewhere that the Abergavenny Club might hold a proxy for these types of cars next year?

If that is correct then I may hang onto them and enter that, if not, I may as well sell them as I have no real interest in raid / rally, only entered to support Graham.

Gerry

Hi Gerry,
The Wye Valley Club who in the last 2 years have hosted a Round for us and also combined it with their own “live Raid “ event day have suggested that they will offer to run a one day Proxy event in the future.

[classicchrisk]

Cars arrived home, today, relatively safely.

I say "relatively" safely, as the rear body mount on the Land-Rover, had become detached. I suspect this was probably the cause of the below expectation performance on the final stage.
Really glad it held out, as long as it did!!

Almost repaired, just waiting for the epoxy to fully cure!